Humanitarian Aid Research Articles

THE EUROPEAN MIRROR OF HYBRID WAR: HOW RUSSIA TRIES TO DESTABILIZE THE EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

The unprovoked Russian aggression against Ukraine, which is the biggest war after the World War II, has caused a number of problems in Europe and in the whole democratic world, which is concerning regarding the functioning of the international institutions, the security of the countries that are part of international organizations, but aren't members of the EU and NATO, the protection of human rights mechanisms and the lack of mechanisms for the prevention of war and conflicts. It is clear that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is no accident. The Russian elites, led by President Vladimir Putin, have been preparing for this move for years. Not only have they acted openly, but they have also been waging a hybrid war. Moreover, the war in Ukraine has been going on since 2014, when Russia supported the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics for succession. And before that, Moscow unilaterally annexed Crimea. The European response to Russian aggression has been diplomatic expressions of concern and threats, and some sanctions, which Russia has successfully evaded. It seemed that Europe had consistently adapted to the new geopolitical environment. But only after 24th of February 2022, all civilization's words stand by Ukraine and the Ukrainians. The Western allies of Ukraine give money and weapons, humanitarian aid, training of military and deminers and take in Ukrainian refugees. The war in Ukraine is in its third year. This analysis elaborates the Russian influence on different levels and the European reactions to their attacks and provocations.

1782년 길버트법의 제정과 수용 그리고 그 영향

This paper aims to shed new light on Gilbert’s Act, which has been neglected in exsiting studies. The influence of Gilbert’s Act has long been underestimated due to its nature as a permissive act without coercive force. However, the reform of Thomas Gilbert, who drafted this act, were not merely intended to create a humanitarian relief system. He sought a comprehensive overhaul of the entire poor relief system. Yet, after the failure of his first legislative attempt in 1765, his reform gradually took a more moderate direction. Gilbert’s Act, enacted in 1782, not only represented a significant retreat from the original plan but also failed to mandate the reform nationwide, instead granting local governments the authority to implement the reform. Despite these limits, the extent to which Gilbert’s Act was adopted was far more widespread than what previous research has revealed. In Hampshire, about 40 parishes adopted Gilbert’s Act. Moreover, the motivations for its adoption were not limited to humanitarian concerns, but diverse, including the reduction of poor relief costs and the encouragement of labor among the poor. Remarkably, Gilbert’s Act continued to persist even after the 1834 New Poor Law, which brought a major overhaul to the poor relief system, and in some areas, it remained firmly upheld.

Ethics in humanitarian settings-relevance and consequences for dialysis and kidney care.

With the increasing frequency and severity of disasters and the increasing number of patients living with kidney disease, on dialysis and with transplants around the world, the need for kidney care in humanitarian settings is increasing. Almost all humanitarian emergencies pose a threat to kidney health because all treatments are highly susceptible to interruption, and interruption can be deadly. Providing support for people requiring dialysis in humanitarian settings can be complex and is associated with many trade-offs. The global kidney care community must become familiar with the ethics, principles and duties essential to meeting the overarching goals of ethical and effective disaster relief. Ethics principles and values must be considered on the individual, public health and global levels. The wellbeing of a single patient must be considered in the context of the competing needs of many others, and optimal treatment may not be possible due to resource constraints. Public health ethics principles, including considerations of triage and resource allocation, maximization of benefit and feasibility, often become directly relevant at the bedside. Individuals delivering humanitarian relief must be well trained, competent, respectful and professional, while involved organizations need to uphold the highest professional and ethical standards. There may be dissonance between ethical guidance and practical realities in humanitarian settings, which for inexperienced individuals may present significant challenges. Sustaining dialysis care in emergencies brings these issues starkly to the fore. Preparedness for dialysis in emergencies is an ethical imperative that mandates multisectoral stakeholder engagement and action, development of surge response plans, clinical and ethics guidance, and transparent priority setting. This manuscript outlines common ethics challenges and considerations that apply in all humanitarian actions, and illustrates their relevance to kidney care as a whole, using examples of how these may apply to dialysis and kidney disaster relief efforts in humanitarian settings.

SDCINet: A novel cross-task integration network for segmentation and detection of damaged/changed building targets with optical remote sensing imagery

Buildings are primary locations for human activities and key focuses in the military domain. Rapidly detecting damaged/changed buildings (DCB) and conducting detailed assessments can effectively aid urbanization monitoring, disaster response, and humanitarian assistance. Currently, the tasks of object detection (OD) and change detection (CD) for DCB are almost independent of each other, making it difficult to simultaneously determine the location and details of changes. Based on this, we have designed a cross-task network called SDCINet, which integrates OD and CD, and have created four dual-task datasets focused on disasters and urbanization. SDCINet is a novel deep learning dual-task framework composed of a consistency encoder, differentiation decoder, and cross-task global attention collaboration module (CGAC). It is capable of modeling differential feature relationships based on bi-temporal images, performing end-to-end pixel-level prediction, and object bounding box regression. The bi-direction traction function of CGAC is used to deeply couple OD and CD tasks. Additionally, we collected bi-temporal images from 10 locations worldwide that experienced earthquakes, explosions, wars, and conflicts to construct two datasets specifically for damaged building OD and CD. We also constructed two datasets for changed building OD and CD based on two publicly available CD datasets. These four datasets can serve as data benchmarks for dual-task research on DCB. Using these datasets, we conducted extensive performance evaluations of 18 state-of-the-art models from the perspectives of OD, CD, and instance segmentation. Benchmark experimental results demonstrated the superior performance of SDCINet. Ablation experiments and evaluative analyses confirmed the effectiveness and unique value of CGAC.

A diversionary benevolent media strategy: Lobbying Saudi Arabia's humanitarian aid in Arabic and English

AbstractHumanitarian aid is often accompanied by broad media coverage. In academic research, there is a dominant bias toward Western studies on the topic. Following studies that emphasize the negative role of autocratic regimes using their media to frame threats as an intra‐state diversionary strategy, this study contributes to our understating of how autocratic regimes use the media and illuminates how they employ a diversionary benevolent strategy in the media through framing humanitarian activities. We illustrate this theory by using the case of media strategy models used by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) that frame its provision of humanitarian aid to global and national audiences. The empirical approach is based on an analysis of 263 articles from four leading Saudi newspapers published online in English and Arabic. The result indicates that the KSA encourages two different diversionary benevolent strategies. The first strategy is aimed at increasing the KSAs international community prestige, focusing on mediatization that depicts its alliance with global efforts while employing “threat” strategy towards its adversaries. The second strategy is aimed mainly at Saudi nationals with the purpose of increasing their support of the royal family.

Earthquake Risk in Bangladesh: Lesson Learned from Turkiye-Morocco Earthquake

Turkey, Morocco, and Bangladesh are all located in active seismic zones of the Earth’s surface. Recent studies have predicted catastrophic earthquakes in Bangladesh in the near future. Since disasters can act as catalysts for learning by exposing the shortcomings and vulnerabilities of communities or governments, it is believed that Bangladesh has much to learn from the 2023 mega-disasters in Turkey and Morocco. Therefore, this study aims to understand the causes of the catastrophic earthquakes in Turkey and Morocco. The main objective is to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the disaster management stages during the 2023 earthquakes in Turkey and Morocco, and to compare these with the situation in Bangladesh to better understand potential earthquake risks there. Moreover, the study seeks to develop a framework for Disaster Learning. It follows a qualitative research methodology, with most of the necessary data gathered from existing literature and Key Informant Interviews. The findings suggest that infrastructural vulnerabilities and noncompliance with land use regulations were significant causes of the catastrophic damage in Turkey and Morocco, which are also relevant to the earthquake risks in Bangladesh. Key strengths identified in Turkey include the availability of open spaces for emergency services, wide roads, modern equipment, skilled manpower, military-civilian coordination, and a robust humanitarian response—all areas where Bangladesh has significant deficiencies. Lessons from this study reveal that climatic conditions and debris management could pose major challenges for Bangladesh in the event of a significant earthquake.

Defining performance and competency requirements for army responders to domestic flood response operations

Purpose The a priori identification and development of army personnel competencies are necessary to enable effective and efficient responses to rapidly changing climate conditions. Accordingly, this study aims to identify the performance requirements of a military flood responder and the competencies (knowledge, skills and abilities) required to perform it. Design/methodology/approach Using an abductive approach, the authors conducted both secondary and primary research to generate a validated framework of performance criteria and competencies for army personnel responding to floods. This literature review integrated both the peer-reviewed academic literature and public sector grey literature. Using the critical incident technique, the authors then conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 members of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) who had previously been tasked with flood response operations. Participants were asked about the tasks required while conducting flood response operations. Interview transcripts were then content analysed to identify themes regarding those tasks, and the competencies needed to perform those tasks were then extracted and contrasted with the literature review findings. Inter-rater reliability for the analysis was established via iterative discussion between the two co-authors. Findings The primary data reinforced and expanded the list of performance expectations that the authors deductively identified from the integrated literature review, adding granularity to each. It also identified competencies (including both hard and soft skills) and highlighted previously neglected contextual antecedents of military flood response effectiveness. Research limitations/implications though knowledge saturation was achieved from the 15 interviews conducted, further research with larger samples could more deeply ground the evidence discovered in this study. Nevertheless, the competencies identified in this paper could serve as a starting guide to staffing and/or training interventions targeted at improving these competencies for personnel responding to flood scenarios. Practical implications The theoretical findings also have immediate practical relevance to training for flood response operations. In particular, the subtle challenges in competency crossover from military operations to flood response operations may facilitate not only more efficient, targeted training (that could improve the effectiveness of army personnel involved in humanitarian roles), but could be applied to the selection of army personnel as well. This study may also help provincial/municipal operators and emergency planners by better communicating the strengths and limitations of army personnel in addressing civilian military cooperation for humanitarian operations. Thus, the findings of this research study represent an important first step in prompting attention to the strategic human resource planning studies required to make all responders more efficient and effective in their respective division of labour within the humanitarian domain. Social implications Peering a little beyond these research findings, human-induced climate change is expected to continue increasing the frequency of such events (IPCC, 2021), and a timely, national force is likely to be increasingly required for Canadians impacted by major disasters stemming from natural hazards when local resources become overwhelmed. Yet, there is some concern from the CAF that increasing responsiveness to disaster operations will affect their military readiness (Leuprecht and Kasurak, 2020). One can indeed envision a paradox whereby the CAF is both a “force of last resort” while increasingly becoming a “first choice for domestic disaster and emergency assistance”. The practical implications from this research also suggest that military personnel, while fully capable of successfully conducting flood response operations, may become overburdened and less able to adopt yet greater capacity and training for other additional humanitarian work. Nevertheless, the competencies highlighted by participants can help inform the next flood response operation in Canada. Originality/value Most literature in the field of emergency response focuses on cooperation between civilian and military resources and other strategic-level themes. The findings address critical granularity missing at the operational and tactical levels of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief research. The authors also draw implications beyond the military context, including for local/regional governmental players (operators and emergency planners) as well as for volunteers in flood response roles.

Implementing a pragmatic randomised controlled trial in a humanitarian setting: lessons learned from the TISA trial

IntroductionHigh-quality evidence is crucial for guiding effective humanitarian responses, yet conducting rigorous research, particularly randomised controlled trials, in humanitarian crises remains challenging. The TISA (“traitement intégré de la sous-nutrition aiguë”) trial aimed to evaluate the impact of a Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) intervention on the standard national treatment of uncomplicated Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) in children aged 6–59 months. Implemented in two northern Senegalese regions from December 22, 2021, to February 20, 2023, the trial faced numerous challenges, which this paper explores along with the lessons learned.MethodsThe study utilised trial documentation, including field reports, meeting minutes, training plans, operational monitoring data and funding proposals, to retrace the trial timeline, identify challenges and outline implemented solutions. Contributions from all TISA key staff—current and former, field-based and headquarters—were essential for collecting and interpreting information. Challenges were categorised as internal (within the TISA consortium) or external (broader contextual issues).ResultsThe TISA trial, executed by a consortium of academic, operational, and community stakeholders, enrolled over 2000 children with uncomplicated SAM across 86 treatment posts in a 28,000 km2 area. The control group received standard outpatient SAM care, while the intervention group also received a WASH kit and hygiene promotion. Initially planned to start in April 2019 for 12 months, the trial faced a 30-month delay and was extended to 27 months due to challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic, national strikes, health system integration issues and weather-related disruptions. Internal challenges included logistics, staffing, data management, funding and aligning diverse stakeholder priorities.Discussion and conclusionDespite these obstacles, the trial concluded successfully, underscoring the importance of tailored monitoring, open communication, transparency and community involvement. Producing high-quality evidence in humanitarian contexts demands extensive preparation and strong coordination among local and international researchers, practitioners, communities, decision-makers and funders from the study’s inception.Trial registrationClinicaltrials.gov NCT04667767.

Black Lives in Limbo: Liberian Refugees, Migrant Justice, and the Narration of Antiblack U.S. Border Politics

The Trump administration’s attacks on immigrant communities, especially undocumented people, produced major policy reversals on temporary humanitarian relief programs, such as the termination of Deferred Enforced Departure (DED). While these policies have had wide-reaching impacts across communities of color, within the broader immigration debate, the experiences of Black migrants have often been overlooked. This paper asks the following questions: How did extremist policies impact Black migrants under the Trump administration? What vulnerabilities did these policies produce or exacerbate? What do these efforts tell us about the “turn” toward authoritarianism in U.S. politics? Applying antiblackness as a theoretical framework, this paper conducts a content analysis of media outlets to examine the impact of extremist policies on Liberian DED beneficiaries. The ramifications of these policies intensified pre-existing antiblack dynamics of belonging and exclusion within the state by reinforcing racial hierarchies, producing social exclusion and vulnerability to state violence, and maintaining constrained access to citizenship. In assessing the many ways that antiblack racism manifests for citizens and non-citizens alike, we can extend our understanding of migrant justice, racial justice, and anti-imperialism as interdependent struggles in the face of rising authoritarianism.

An imperial meantime

AbstractOn November 13, 2020, the Sahrawi movement for national liberation, known as the Polisario Front, resumed its armed struggle against Morocco's occupation of Western Sahara. With this decision, the movement put an end to a 29‐year‐long peace process throughout which the implementation of international law had been indefinitely deferred. During this cease‐fire, the Polisario used humanitarian aid to strengthen its nation‐state building in exile. This practice formed part of a larger historical narration that was inserted into the cease‐fire's temporal parenthesis, or what I call an imperial meantime. As a result, a disjuncture arose between the movement's political forms and its goal of achieving state sovereignty over Western Sahara. During this imperial meantime, a generation of refugees came of age. Describing the contradictions experienced by young politicized refugees, and highlighting the role that the control over time plays in humanitarian governance, I show how the invisible violence of a humanitarian peace anticipated the return to armed struggle.

Guiding Principles for Department of Defense Global Health Engagements.

Within the past decade, the U.S. DoD has increased spending on global health engagements (GHEs). Not only do these increased efforts strengthen national security but they also fortify the United States' diplomatic relations with foreign governments through medical stability operations and health diplomacy. Maximizing health care-related programs will bolster a partner government's ability to maintain secure borders and prevent conflict while depriving extremists of safe havens. Looking beyond the short-term benefits, the long-term effects of GHEs are not limited to a nation's borders; aid permeates into a society providing social and economic opportunities otherwise unobtainable to the community and effectively winning the hearts and minds of the population. Although the DoD does list policies and procedures in which to conduct GHEs, the proposed set of principles can further prevent conflicts, deliver better foreign humanitarian assistance, and develop a better health care partnership centered around the host nation.

Australian foreign policy, the media and responses to mass atrocities

ABSTRACT This paper begins to put together a thus-far missing picture of the dynamics between Australian public opinion, media and foreign policy responses to genocide and other mass atrocities, in the Asia-Pacific and further afield. It examines key factors likely to influence these relationships, focusing on the role and significance of normative-ideational imperatives, such as Australian values and notions of ‘good international citizenship’ in Australia's foreign policymaking. To assess the centrality of these imperatives for the public and their implications for foreign policy, an exploratory study is conducted of Australian mainstream media's coverage of the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar during 2016–2017. The findings point to striking normative omissions in the media's coverage and public and official deliberations over Australia's policy responses to the crisis. The essay discusses potential explanations for these omissions and highlights themes for further research arising from the study. These relate to the influence of political party bipartisanship on Australia's foreign policies, the importance of middle powers cooperation for international atrocity prevention, and the extent to which a focus on refugee intake and humanitarian aid might have substituted for discussions of more direct ways Australia could assist in halting the violence itself.

Is in-kind kinder than cash? The impact of money vs. food aid on social emotions and aid take-up

Over the past decade, there has been a shift in the way charities deliver humanitarian aid. Historically, the most prevalent way to help the global poor was by providing in-kind asset transfers. Recently, alternatives to in-kind aid, such as cash aid, have been increasing in prevalence. Although there has been widespread endorsement from the academic community and the public on the popularizing model of giving cash aid, one perspective remains untouched: the recipient's perspective. Thus, the present research explores how food-insecure individuals feel when receiving money vs. in-kind food aid to help meet their hunger and nutrition needs. Specifically, we explore the degree of positive (e.g., feeling cared for) and negative (e.g., feeling ashamed) social emotions felt when receiving the aid opportunity and how willing recipients are to accept monetary (vs. food) aid. Results from five preregistered experiments (N = 3,110)-a field experiment in Kenya and four online experiments in the United States-find that monetary (vs. food) aid elicits comparatively more of a market-pricing relationship and less of a communal sharing relationship and, hence, makes people feel less positive and more negative social emotions when receiving the help. Subsequently, recipients are less likely to take up monetary (vs. food) aid from a charity. However, we find that this effect does not persist when receiving government aid: Recipients are similarly willing to accept money and in-kind food aid from the government. This research suggests that future scholarship ought to examine ways to improve psychological experiences when receiving money from charity.

Pobrecitos: Determinations of deservingness in the Costa Rican asylum process

AbstractThis article examines how Costa Rica's asylum process enacts bureaucratic bordering, shaping refugee deservingness through intertwined logics of security and humanitarianism. Based on fieldwork from 2016 to 2022, the analysis focuses on two areas: daily interactions between asylum officials and applicants, and the bureaucratic practices in humanitarian aid distribution. The first case analyzes a form of micro‐level bureaucratic bordering in the ways officials draw on racialized understandings of cultural, social, and economic differences to categorize asylum seekers as deserving or undeserving. The second explores how a restructured aid system, with NGOs as filters, erects bureaucratic barriers that complicate access to services for asylum seekers. Both cases demonstrate how deservingness is determined through the interplay of institutions, actors, and procedures, reflecting broader trends of the intersection of security and humanitarianism in migration management, ultimately marginalizing those least equipped to navigate the bureaucratic complexities of the asylum system.

W Galicji i za kordonem. Aktywność polityczna Jana Hupki w czasach Wielkiej Wojny (1914 – 1918). Część I

The article presents the political activity of Jan Hupka – a Galician conservative, a member of the Conservative Club, then of the National Right Party, an advocate of the orientation towards Austria-Hungary, one of the closest associates of Władysław Leopold Jaworski. Jan Hupka’s area of activity included – first of all – activity within the framework of the Supreme National Committee, bringing humanitarian aid to the population of Galicia and the Kingdom of Poland, coordinating relief efforts for war invalids, legion veterans, widows and orphans of legionaries, as well as creating a network of employment offices, hospitals, health care centers, setting up vocational courses, funding relief for the needy. Jan Hupka’s political contacts with representatives of various political options and participation in the Legions’ recruitment campaign were also analyzed. Also shown is Hupka’s attitude towards the hierarchy of the Church, leaders of leading parties and political camps, as well as the events and processes taking place (e.g., the formation of the Legions, the formation and evolution of the orientation towards Austria-Hungary, the November 5 Act, the “oath crisis”, the rule of the Regency Council, etc.). In addition to discussing Hupka’s political activities, an attempt was made to determine the role he played both in Galician politics and in the milieu of Polish activists seeking opportunities for the rebirth of the Polish state based on an orientation toward the central states. The analysis was based on internally diverse source material (e.g., archival documents, the press, memoirs and diaries). Studies (compact works and scientific articles) played only a supporting role.

International Humanitarian Assistance for Health: Türkiye’s Health Diplomacy Practices during the Covid-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 has significantly impacted the health systems of developed countries, leading to a surge in the demand for medical supplies and equipment. This study is dedicated to shedding light on Türkiye's health diplomacy practices and its pivotal role as a facilitator in addressing the escalating global humanitarian and medical aid demand for medical equipment, supplies, medicines, and vaccines due to COVID-19. The study employs the PRISMA systematic analysis method as a data collection protocol to scrutinize Türkiye's international humanitarian and medical assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of health diplomacy practices. The study's findings, which are categorized under four headings: international humanitarian aid based on COVID-19, international medical equipment and supplies, international ventilator aid, and Türkiye's international COVID-19 vaccine aid, reveal that Türkiye has extended a broad spectrum of medical aid and support, including ventilators, vaccines, and medical equipment, to 161 countries across five continents, demonstrating its global reach and impact. Furthermore, as a testament to its “entrepreneurial and humanitarian foreign policy,” Türkiye has underscored regional and international cooperation through its medical and humanitarian endeavors. Türkiye's international humanitarian assistance has gone beyond material aid to encourage dialogue and has been a message of international solidarity for communities. In future research, establishing a connection between Türkiye's regional and international medical assistance and tangible political, social, and economic outcomes will validate the impact and benefits of its humanitarian efforts.

Strategic narrative in Ukraine

This study analyzes the strategic use of narratives as a crucial factor that enabled Ukraine to effectively counter Russia’s aggression during the 2022 Russo-Ukrainian War, supported by the international community. The research focuses on the central theme of “democratic values and identity” within Ukraine’s narrative, exploring how this narrative was crafted and how it garnered acceptance and backing from international actors. Building on existing discussions on strategic narratives, this study theoretically examines the processes of narrative formation, acceptance by actors, and the building of solidarity. Furthermore, it presents an analytical framework to explain the significance of the “democratic values and identity” message, and how it is effectively conveyed to various actors. In the current conflict, Ukraine has projected a strategic narrative centered on “democratic values and identity,”which has reinforced solidarity among both state and non-state actors, enabling a sustained conflict with Russia. State actors have supported Ukraine’s war efforts through military, economic, and humanitarian aid, while non-state actors, including individuals, organizations, corporations, and international institutions, have contributed by amplifying narratives on social media, engaging in proxy warfare in cyberspace, providing internet services and aid, and shaping the strategic environment through international norms. This study suggests that narratives can be strategically constructed and utilized as non-military means to achieve national objectives.

The role of women during the Spanish Civil War

This study explores the multifaceted roles of women during the Spanish Civil War, examining the diverse perspectives delineated in academic literature. Leveraging scholarly articles sourced from Web of Science and Scopus spanning from 2013 to 2022, we analyse temporal trends, author demographics, scholarly impact, journal prominence, and thematic content. Our investigation culminates in the classification of contributions into six overarching themes: humanitarian aid and healthcare, biographical narratives, communication dynamics, experiences of exile and refugee communities, women’s mobilisation and ideological engagement, and the harrowing realities of repression and violence inflicted upon women. Furthermore, our findings reveal that research predominantly originates from Spain and is disseminated through Spanish-language journals. However, there exists a notable interconnection with the United States, evidenced by the participation of prominent North American authors and publication in non-Spanish journals. This research offers insights into the multifaceted roles of women during the Spanish Civil War and their academic representation.

Characterizing the capability frontier: Key attributes determining the development of capabilities

AbstractSystem Dynamics research on capability traps, where organizations remain in low capability and performance equilibrium because of poor resource allocation, spans over two decades and various industries, including agriculture, industry, and humanitarian aid. However, there is a gap in understanding how specific capability attributes affect resource allocation decisions. This study advances the capability trap literature by developing a theoretical model analyzing how key capability attributes—development time, erosion time, and productivity—impact organizational performance and managers' decisions. We introduce the concept of a “capability region”, an attractive area for capability investments, delineated by a “capability frontier” determined by threshold values of these three attributes. This model helps managers understand the factors driving capability development and supports better decision‐making, especially in sustainable practices. By identifying where sustainability‐related capability investments are likely to succeed, this research offers practical guidance for organizations to escape or avoid capability traps, promoting sustainable growth and adaptation.

The statue of Matron Alice Cashin (1870-1939).

Alice Alanna Cashin (1870-1939) was a pioneering Australian nurse whose career spanned both conflict and humanitarian service. Born to Irish immigrants in Australia, Cashin trained at St. Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, before expanding her expertise in London and joining the British Red Cross during World War I. Her service included critical roles in France and Egypt, and she was eventually promoted to 'seas-matron' on the HMHS Gloucester Castle. During a torpedo attack by a German U-Boat, Cashin displayed extraordinary bravery, overseeing the evacuation of over 399 patients and ensuring their safety before leaving on the last lifeboat. After the war, she managed a military hospital in England before returning to Australia to care for her ailing father and later her elderly uncle. Cashin's post-war years included a modest stint running a stationery shop and her retirement in Victoria Road. Her exemplary service earned her multiple accolades, including the Star Medal and the Royal Red Cross Medal, the latter being the first awarded to an Australian. She was also honoured with multiple mentions in dispatches and personal invitations to Buckingham Palace. Alice Cashin's legacy is memorialised at the Woronora Cemetery, with her medals and accolades displayed at the ANZAC Memorial in Sydney, reflecting her enduring impact on the nursing profession and her remarkable dedication to service and care.